Macbeth

Act 1, Scene 5

Location: Macbeth’s Castle, Inverness.

Characters: Lady Macbeth, A Messenger/Attendant and Macbeth.

Dramatic Action of the Scene: Lady Macbeth enters, reading aloud a letter
from Macbeth (her husband), that describes his ‘encounters’ with the witches.

Dramatic and structural significance of the scene: Lady Macbeth is

introduced in the play as a new ‘lead’ character – certainly a character of
interest and dramatic significance, even though she is relatively ‘minor’ in
terms of how frequently we see her or how many lines she has in the play.

We - the audience - see and hear her reactions to the contents of Macbeth’s
letter. Remember, it is content that we - the audience - already know. As a
result, in terms of the play, the content of Macbeth’s letter is dramatically and
thematically less important than Lady Macbeth’s reaction to the letter.

The Language of Lady Macbeth’s Speech: We meet Lady Macbeth for the
first time when she is in the middle of reading a letter from her husband – she
is speaking his words, but they are imbued with her sense of their meaning
and import.

Notice that the letter to Lady Macbeth is written in prose. When Lady Macbeth
reads her husband’s letter, we are able detect a hint of the conflict that is to
come between them in later scenes. Her reaction to his letter does
demonstrate a genuinely loving side to her nature, but she also proves to be
erratic. Her unpredictable character is demonstrated through her spoken
language, which is written in verse. She speaks 16 lines, and 4 thoughts in
total, all of which end mid line.

At first, Lady Macbeth’s speech is excited and agitated. When she is

responding in a reactionary way, this is indicated in her language by
‘metrical overflow’, meaning that she speaks ‘too many syllables’ for the
poetic meter and so ‘breaks the rules of the verse’ – of the iambic
pentameter. This ‘breaking of the meter’ is a deliberate dramatic device
on Shakespeare’s part, that enhances his characterisation of Lady
Macbeth as a grasping and lustful seeker of power and status.

As Lady Macbeth considers the content and implications of her husband’s

letter and begins to take greater control of her thoughts and feelings, her

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speech becomes metrically regular. It conforms to the rules of the poetic
meter.

After reading her husband’s letter in full, Lady Macbeth’s language changes.
Her spoken language becomes regular and is written in poetry – a regular
pattern of iambic pentameter. This dramatic shift in form is quite deliberate
on Shakespeare’s part.

Shakespeare also provides a contrast between Macbeth’s prose and his

wife’s poetry, which gives us a sense of Macbeth’s presence in the scene,
even though he is absent. (Sometimes in drama, “the greatest presence is an
absence”.)

The exposition that is achieved through the letter also gives us - the audience
- a sense of Lady Macbeth and her husband’s different personalities and the
dynamic that exists within their relationship.

Relationships are central to the dramatic form. It is not possible to

discuss a play without paying significant attention to the relationships
between characters and to the shifting balance of power that exists
between them.

Often in productions of Macbeth – particularly cinematic productions of

Macbeth, the pair is depicted as having a highly sexual relationship, in which
seduction plays a major part. Lady Macbeth is often presented as someone
who plays with Macbeth’s sense of himself and especially with his masculinity,
by taunting him with challenges.

As Lady Macbeth takes greater control of her thoughts and begins to

contemplate what the letter means for her life and future, the prose that turns
into poetry also has the function of providing a contrast between chaos (prose)
and control/order (poetry).

On the audience’s first meeting with Lady Macbeth, she displays a greater
ability to be strategic and to ‘play the part that is required of her’ to claim the
crown of Scotland. Specifically:

In Line 1 on Page 23, Macbeth reveals to his wife – his dearest partner of
greatness - that he has been entranced by his encounter with the witches on
the day of success, referring to the day that he and Banquo defeated the
Norwegians.

In Line 2 on page 23, Macbeth’s letter to his wife refers to the perfectest
report of the witches. Perfect, because what they said had proved to be true
and he was named Thane of Cawdor by the king.

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When Lady Macbeth begins, “Glamis thou art . . .” at Line 13 on Page 23,
she speaks her thoughts as though her husband were standing right in front of
her. She addresses him, even though he is absent.

At Line 14, she speaks about Macbeth being/becoming what “thou art
promised . . .”; she has distorted his disclosures in his letter to mean that he
has been promised the crown by the witches, thus revealing her ambition and
desire for power and status. She is quickly obsessed with the idea that her
husband will become King of Scotland. Immediately, she fears that he does
not have it in him to do what is necessary – to kill Duncan and his nominated
rightful heir, Malcolm when they come to his castle.

The most extraordinary thing Lady Macbeth says of her husband’s nature is:

“ Yet I do fear thy nature.

It is too full o’th’ milk of human kindness.” (Line 15, Page 23)

In her estimation, Macbeth is not tough enough to do what needs to be done;

that he does not have the ‘courage’ to kill Duncan and Malcolm, so that he can
claim the throne of Scotland. She admonishes him for being gentle and weak
and for not having the audacity to kill Duncan and Malcolm, so that he can
claim the throne.

Lady Macbeth is thinking only about the nearest way; (Line 16) the most
direct route to the throne, which means the murder of both King Duncan and
his heir. They have to be out of the way. The obstacles must be removed.

She says forcefully to her absent husband:

“ . . . Hie thee hither,

That I may pour my spirits in thine ear
and chastise with the valour of my tongue
All that impedes thee from the golden round . . .” (Lines 23-26)

She wants him to hurry home quickly, so that she can seduce and influence
him and make him bold enough to act on his ambition to be king – to seize the
golden round being, of course, a metaphor for ‘the crown of Scotland’. She
wants to pour her spirits into his ear.

A messenger interrupts her to say her that the King is coming to Inverness
and that she must prepare to receive her guests. Her husband will arrive first.

Just before Macbeth appears, she makes one of the most famous speeches
ever made by a female character in any play in Lines 37-56:

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“ The raven himself is hoarse
That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
And fill me from the crown to the toe topfull
Of direst cruelty; make thick my blood,
Stop up th’access and passage to remorse
That no compunctious visitings of nature
Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
Th’effect and it. come to my woman’s breasts
And take my milk for gall, you murd’ring ministers,
Wherever in your sightless substances
You wait on nature’s mischief. Come, thick night,
And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes,
Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark,
To cry, Hold, hold.”

She calls upon the spirits to rob her of anything that makes her ‘feminine’ in a
conventional sense – feminine and capable of gentleness, kindness. She
wants to be cruel, hard and traditionally ‘masculine’, so that she can grasp
power with both hands; so that she can kill to win, like a true patriarch.

She also calls upon the night to shroud the murder in darkness so that she
and her husband will be hidden from view – no one will see or hear what
happens.

She goes on to say:

“Great glamis, worthy Cawdor,

greater than both by the all-hail hereafter,
Thy letters have transported me beyond
This ignorant present, and I feel now
The future in the instant.”
(Lines 36-56, Page 25 )

She is now obsessed with the crown. She will not be satisfied with anything
less than the golden round.
On superstition: Once again, the women in the play are associated with
superstition, alliances with demons, spirits and the devil himself. Lady
Macbeth has superstitiously called upon the spirits of night and darkness to
empower her to do what she is planning - regicide.

So, in her dramatic soliloquy of 16 lines and 5 thoughts, Lady Macbeth

shows herself to be ferocious.

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When Macbeth arrives home, Lady Macbeth immediately instructs him to:

“Look like th’innocent flower,

But be the serpent under’t.” (Lines 63 and 64, Page 27)

It is a biblical allusion, referring to the ‘serpent’ of the Adam and Eve story
from Genesis and of the power of temptation.

Macbeth seems to be wary of his wife’s ambition and what she is proposing.
Her last lines to him in the scene are:

“ . . . only look up clear;

To alter favour ever is to fear.
Leave all the rest to me.” (Lines 69-71, Page 27).

Lady Macbeth’s pointed conclusion is indicative of her strategic and

calculating desire for power, as well as her ability to develop the plan to make
the murder plot happen; to stage manage and enact the heinous crime of
regicide.

Reflections, Themes and Writing Tasks:

Does Macbeth’s letter specifically mention carrying out any evil doings?

When Macbeth writes, “Dearest Partner of Greatness” to his wife, does it

foreshadow what is to come? What does it suggest about their relationship?

Does Lady Macbeth’s commentary about her husband suggest an inversion

of gender roles? Why?

How is the concept of fate presented in the scene?

Do you perceive Lady Macbeth to be a feminist character? Why or why not?